Closing summary
We are now closing the Ukraine rolling coverage. Here is a summary of events:
The cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine after three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion will be $524bn over the next decade, according to a report released by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations.
Moscow has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claim that Russia would accept European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. Addressing reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had nothing to add to the foreign ministry’s position on the unacceptability of Nato peacekeepers in Ukraine.
The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer said the UK will increase defence spending – currently at 2.3% – to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with the aim of raising it to 3% after the next election and into the 2030s. The increase will be funded by a cut in the international aid budget by billions of pounds to 0.3% of national income.
Europe should use a special programme to fund defence spending on projects of strategic interest to the continent, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
The Kremlin has welcomed what it said was a “much more balanced” US stance on Ukraine after the Trump administration pushed through a UN security council resolution on the war that included no criticism of Russia.
Putin has offered to sell rare earth minerals to the US, including from Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Ukraine received 500,000 artillery shells bought outside Europe last year under an initiative spearheaded by Prague and supported by many other countries, Czech prime minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited Tehran for talks with Iranian officials.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts in the early hours of Tuesday as Russian air attacks continued.
EU foreign ministers have discussed sending billions of military aid to Ukraine, ahead of a summit dedicated to European defence next week. At a meeting in Brussels on Monday a handful of countries proposed military aid for Ukraine in 2025 ranging from €20bn to €40bn, according to several diplomatic sources.
The EU is spending more money on Russian fossil fuels than on financial aid to Ukraine, according to a new report. The EU bought €21.9bn (£18.1bn) of Russian oil and gas in the third year of the war, an amount equalling one-sixth greater than the €18.7bn the EU allocated to Ukraine in financial aid in 2024.
Downing Street said Trump has changed the global conversation around Ukraine “for the better”, as the UK imposed further sanctions on Russia in an effort to force Putin to make concessions. Keir Starmer’s spokesperson did not comment on Trump’s false claims that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a dictator. Starmer will hold talks with Trump in Washington on Thursday.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires from Ukraine:
